Fans of writer Harper Lee came from as far as Maryland to Monroeville over the weekend for a candlelight vigil for the author who died just over a week ago. APR's Pat Duggins was there to put together this audio postcard with remembrances of the author of To Kill A Mockingbird.
“Hi, I’m Lee Ann Walker-Parmer, I live in Monroeville, Alabama. And, I do remember the first time I read the book. I was very young, I really probably wasn’t really old enough to read well, and I didn’t comprehend it. But, as time went on, you now…we did had it, growing up. The movie, I just loved. It really showed a lot about the race problem, and stuff, in the south especially. I thought it was just real…I think opened up a lot eyes to the way that people treated other people—especially color-wise. We’re all children of God, and we’re not supposed to judge, each other from color. And it did open up a lot of eyes, cause I was born in Selma, Alabama and that was terrible, back in the 1960’s…I was born in 1961. And it’s still bad there. It’s just a shame that people can’t get along better. It showed me a lot about…opened my eyes…I never had my eyes closed, but seeing the difference in the way people treated other people, and the racism, which isn’t right. Because if people think they’re Christians, they’re not being a Christian, you know what I’m saying—they’re not.”
“My name is Karen Hanson, and I lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland, before I began what I call my odyssey, travelling for a year. I have to answer with very much embarrassment, I’m not sure I read it. I’ve seen the movie, which makes me think I’ve read it, and I have a copy at home. I can’t actually remember if I read it. Perhaps we should delete this! I’m travelling for a year, I just retired…I just got rid of everything, and I made my way down the east coast, and then I’m heading south, then I’m going to go west to the Rockies. And, I knew I wanted to come here, because my book group had read The Mockingbird Next Door, and it kind of reminded me of her importance. And I thought, if I’m sort of in the neighborhood, I’ll come here. It was completely uncoordinated with her death. I was going to come here, and she died a few days before I got here. So, I stuck around, to just chat with people and hang around, and be here for this memorial. So, this…I didn’t drive straight here from Washington, D.C., but it’s just a coincidence.”
“Hi, my name is Jeannie Anderson, and I’m from Lake Village Arkansas. My language arts teacher in Lakeside High school…we had to read it as part of our curriculum, so tenth grade? Ninth grade? I don’t remember having any thoughts about it, until I got older, then I realized that we all need to read this book, there’s something in this book for everybody that needs to know. They need to read it, they need to learn. And, Jim, I get so tickled, because he was forever protecting Scout. And he, kept saying ‘you’re gonna get in trouble, if you keep talkin’ like that.’ And, I found out, my friends started texting me that she had passed. And, I knew I had to be here. This is history. This is something the entire world has lost, and they don’t even realize it.”
